


The Games We Play

by DyadamDriver, HylianHeroOfHyrule (DyadamDriver)



Series: A Bond Forged In Fire [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Cunnilingus, F/M, Fighting is Flirting, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Lynel shaming is not okay, Minor Violence, Oral Sex, PWP, Porn With Plot, Post-Breath of the Wild, Post-Calamity Ganon, Resolved Sexual Tension, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Shameless Smut, impa is the grandma friend we all need, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:41:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29731281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DyadamDriver/pseuds/DyadamDriver, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DyadamDriver/pseuds/HylianHeroOfHyrule
Summary: With the defeat of Calamity Ganon, Hyrule has entered a new age of stability. The Princess of Hyrule, now free from her prison, tries to find her place in a new era of peace and prosperity. Done with the idea of spending her life as the damsel in distress, Zelda enlists Link to teach her how to defend herself and what starts as something constructive turns into a battle of wills with neither side willing to yield first.“Please,” Zelda begged him softly, not knowing what exactly it was that she was begging for. All she knew was that only he could relieve her of the tension that had been building inside her for months before it finally boiled over.“Tell me what you need,” Link murmured, watching her with dark, hungry eyes and spoke with danger in his tone.“You,” she responded and arched her back in hopes of getting the friction she desperately needed to quell the fire in her veins. Your hands, your mouth, your anything. “Just you.”
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: A Bond Forged In Fire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185155
Comments: 5
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [v3ryvelvet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/v3ryvelvet/gifts).



> This is my first piece of work for the LoZ/BOTW Fandom, so please be kind. It will be part of a series that I aim to be updating every other day with something fluffy/smutty/funny as a balm for the shambles of whats happening in real life at the moment. This was initially a 15k oneshot but I've split it into two halves just for ease.
> 
> Thank you to the ever wonderful V3ryvelvet who has helped me nurture this idea and was the first to read through this properly.

* * *

**Twelfth Day of the Eighth Month, Six Months After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

With the sealing of Calamity Ganon, Hyrule was experiencing one of the hottest midsummers in a century, almost rivalling a stroll in the Eldin Region with armour on. Out in the plains on the western outskirts of Kakariko village, the chirping of Restless Crickets and buzzing of Courser Bees was disturbed by the clanging of metal on metal and grunts of exertion.

“Again!” Link called out, twirling the Kodachi in his left hand. He lowered the blade and moved into a defensive stance, ready to block any oncoming attacks from his companion.

Zelda’s lip twitched as she held back a smile. _Show off._ With her identical Kodachi blade held diagonally in front of her, she dashed forward and charged into Links space.

Link raised his weapon with a flourish and blocked Zelda’s oncoming attack and grinned at her wolfishly, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “You’ll have to do better than that, _Princess._ ”

They’d been training daily together in the months since they’d recovered from the aftermath of the battle with Calamity Ganon. Zelda had expressed her desire to learn how to defend herself properly and she called on Links aid. _I can’t always rely on what little is left of Hylia’s powers, or on you to save me,_ she told him determinedly. She was quite done with being the helpless damsel in distress.

With a growl, the Princess took his bait as she attacked again, taking advantage of her newfound upper body strength as she slashed and swiped, aiming at different parts of him hoping to catch him off guard.

But it didn’t work. Her appointed knight blocked every attack, using her strength against her when their blades clashed, to push her backwards and far enough away from him that he could start circling her in a predatory manner that almost reminded Zelda of a wolf, twirling his blade as he went.

“Remember rule one, speed over strength. Again.”

Getting back into position, Zelda exhaled and growled again in frustration but nevertheless, she lunged forward again. She was much faster this time, the small sword making a satisfying whistle as it cleaved through the air between them. The faster they moved the more accurate Zelda’s swings were.

It had taken her a long time to give everything she’d had during their training sessions, at first she was terrified she would wound Link in some way, but she needn’t have worried. That reservation had now turned to deep-rooted frustration as he consistently bested her time and time again.

His blade was there to meet hers at every turn, the open space filled with her grunts of exertion and the clashing and clanging of their weapons. She held her blade out and attempted an uppercut, thinking she had finally got him but he ducked beneath the swipe and feinted left at the last moment.

With the devastating crooked grin that was only reserved for her, and his arms hanging loosely by his sides, he advanced on Zelda, making her back away from him and giving her time to breathe. She stopped moving and smiled back up at him coyly and allowed him into her space as he carried on forwards, their chests almost grazing as his gaze flitting back and forth from her eyes to her lips. They were so close that Zelda couldn’t work out if the heartbeat she felt was her own or his. Link leaned in, his face angled down towards hers and her eyes fluttered closed, feeling his warm breath against her lips as the potent scent of woodsmoke and leather enveloped her.

They were hot, sweaty and exhausted. They had been at this for hours now, the sleeveless tunics they were wearing were doing absolutely nothing to keep them cool. Truthfully, if you asked Zelda, the way they clung to their bodies—especially Links— was doing nothing to help her focus either and she wondered if Link _knew_ how he sidetracked her and was taking advantage of the fact.

When she felt a slight breeze that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end and a shiver roll down her spine, she opened her eyes to find with disappointment that Link was several feet away from her once again. Zelda’s eyes roved over the dishevelled knight as he pushed his sweaty bangs out of his face, his hair long since coming loose from his tie and once again took a defensive stance in front of her. The newly tanned skin of his corded biceps glistening with sweat in the midday sun was distracting to her at best, the first knot in her stomach tightening.

Zelda had yet to disarm her opponent and much to her chagrin, she knew Link would keep going all day if he had to until she finally succeeded because he knew she could do it, such as the last several months had gone. Some days with her body aching and exhausted, she regretted asking him to train her properly, days like today however she thanked the goddess she did. 

Since the fateful day that Link stormed the castle and rescued her from her prison, she had come to realise now that without the heavy burden of the memories of his knighthood, Link was a much more carefree and expressive man. She truly never understood just how much pressure his ideals had placed on him.

Regardless of the changes to his personality between then and now, some things had stayed the same. In the early days of him becoming her appointed knight, there was a spark of _something_ between them, a tension that was getting thicker and more palpable the more she was around him. He still had the silly sense of humour that often coaxed peals of laughter out of her, it was one of the first things that melted the ice that she surrounded herself with upon his appointment. He went from being the boy she hated her best friend and the best part of her day. All she had to get her through the century-long stasis were bittersweet memories of him. 

But with that humour, she now noticed, dare she say it, flirtatiousness. Unlike the stoic and blunt man she knew before, he was almost always finding reasons to touch her now. Whether it was his fingers meeting hers as he handed her a cup of tea in the mornings or the brush of knuckles as he checked her over for injuries after their sessions, it was a damn sight more than before the Calamity struck. 

Zelda tried her best to shake off memories of his touch to remain as focused as possible, lest one of them ended up hurt in some way. In a flurry of motion, her kodachi continued its assault, uppercut after uppercut, feint after feint blocked by its sibling. Link swiped back, holding his blade vertically and knocking her swipes away from his face and, quickly moving his blade so he was holding it horizontally, used it to push her sword down towards the ground and tried to forcibly knock it from her hands.

As he pushed, Zelda pushed back harder, shunting Links blade so he was gripping it pointed downward, his range of natural movement restricted in her hold as she watched his muscles twitch and beads of sweat roll down his arm and she thought that maybe she had finally got him right where she wanted him. 

Until she didn’t. In her brief moment of distraction, Link predicted what she was planning and using his fingers to manoeuvre, he twirled his blade out of her hold, the strength of the pressure she had placed on his weapon almost sent her tumbling forward to the floor.

Taking advantage of her position, Link used his kodachi to clash against Zelda’s, holding it to the ground between them. _Check_. As they stood there crouched and panting, they could cut the tension with one of their blades as their gaze met and Zelda briefly saw a flicker of something predatory in Links smouldering eyes but it was gone as quickly as it came, once again replaced with amusement and pride as he kicked her kodachi out of her grasp and across the grass. _Checkmate._

She looked at him in astonishment. _What the fuck just happened?_

He winked at her as he stepped over to where they had left their supplies, picking up one of the waterskins that were resting in an old wooden bucket full of chunks of Cryonis ice and gulped it down. He put it back into the bucket and pulled the tunic over his head, using the material to wipe the thick droplets of perspiration from his forehead and away from where it was stinging eyes. 

Zelda couldn’t tear her eyes away from his glistening skin.

As if he knew she was staring, Instead of putting it back on he threw the shirt over to the corner of the area they’d claimed and fetched her kodachi, before moving into position and held it out to her. “Rule number two, don’t get distracted,” he said with a smirk, looking at her as if challenging her to say something about his lack of clothing, “your opponent is _not_ going to take it easy on you, Zelda.”

_Well, my opponents won’t look like you either, so there’s no danger of that happening._

Although flustered, Zelda rolled her eyes at him and when his smirk turned to a sly grin, she narrowed them. The bastard knew exactly what he was doing to her.

 _Well, two could play at that game._

She took a moment to recollect herself before walking over to where he’d just stood and plunged her hand into the bucket of ice. Instead of pulling out a waterskin, she pulled out a large chunk of ice and held it to the pulse point on her neck, feeling as the ice began to thaw against her heated skin and droplets of water ran down beneath her tunic.

It was refreshing in the best way as her body reacted to the drastic change in temperature. Zelda risked a look towards her knight, satisfaction creeping up her spine as she took in the look of astonishment on his face. As colour spread across his cheeks and the tips of his ears flushed scarlet, his expression changed to one of pure want, Zelda shivered under his gaze and goosebumps spread across her skin. She didn’t know if it was a reaction to him or the ice that had now melted against her flesh. 

Zelda pulled off her tunic and threw it down on top of his, leaving her in only a black camisole that showed off glistening porcelain skin. She took a long drink from one of the water skins to appease her dry mouth and throat and went back to where Link was waiting, tying her shoulder-length hair back into a messy bun and grabbed the blade from his hand and smiled at him sweetly, ensuring that their hands touched fleetingly, her thumb gently brushing against his knuckle before she pulled away.

As she fell back into her defensive stance—her weapon hand pulled back and her other arm out straight in front of her—with her fluttering stomach hidden behind her bravado, she couldn’t help but wonder how they got to this point and felt as though things today were so far removed from the first few months of their new lives together. While she would never have dared to be so bold when he first began teaching her, his newly found flirtatiousness seemed to be having a bad influence on her.

* * *

**Eighth Day of the Fifth Month, Three Moons After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

They hadn’t been travelling together for more than three days when she asked Link to start teaching her how to defend herself. They passed through many monster camps on their way to see Impa in Kakariko Village and Zelda felt like she spent a large part of that time hiding while he jumped in headfirst. She had told him as they travelled that it seemed Hylia’s powers had been exhausted by the time she had finally sealed Ganon away for good and left her defenceless once more, but she wasn’t ready to become that Princess again. The world was a lot more dangerous than it used to be.

After wearing him down, offering scenario after scenario of how her being able to defend herself would enhance her life upon their travels, Link eventually agreed with her that maybe learning how to protect herself wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would likely be another couple of months before either of them had recovered enough to even begin her training anyway, even then she would need to begin learning hand-to-hand combat before anything to build up strength in her arms and legs.

When the day eventually came three long months later, Link and Zelda were standing on the large grassy bank beside Links cottage in Hateno. The Princess found herself surprisingly excited as her knight brought out their supplies.

“Hold out your hand,” he told Zelda as he pulled out two bundles of fabric three months on. She recognised them instantly as two carefully wrapped parcels that Paya had handed Link on behalf of Impa just as they left Kakariko. She watched him as he unwrapped one of the bundles and carefully pulled out a short ornate sword that looked just a bit shorter than her forearm. 

“Are those what we’re learning with?” She asked him, brow furrowed in confusion and he nodded. “Isn’t that a little dangerous, Link? I’ve never so much as looked at a sword before let alone use one.” 

He shook his head and looked down at her. “We could use a wooden sword used to teach children but when you graduate from that to this I’d have to change your grip, posture and learning style again.”

“Why this?”

“You need something light that won’t be too heavy for you to swing and isn’t too long because you’ll risk catching yourself with it. The length of the sword you use needs to be comparative to the length of your arms.”

She supposed that made sense, he did know best after all. Link held onto the blade with the fabric and offered her the hilt and he let go, watching as she gripped it, looking every bit as authoritative as he was when he was Captain of the Royal Guard. 

Back then it was his job to see to it that each of the recruits was trained up to King Rhoams exacting standards and if one of them failed as a knight, he failed as Captain. It wasn’t just a case of losing a battle, it would result in the death of the King or Princess. It was strange that he had retained knowledge on how to do the basic things he used to such as how to cook, how to fight, how to train, without any of his memories to back it up. Perhaps she would have to study this a little when she had a free moment.

Link frowned and stepped towards her, his hand gently reaching toward her wrist. “Open your hand,” he said softly and when she did he took her hand and adjusted her grip on the hilt, wrapping his hand around hers. “Your hand always needs to be in the middle of the hilt. Too low and your blade will come back towards you if you rebound when you hit your target, too high and you’ll likely shatter your wrist on impact.”

She was ashamed to say that the heat of his hand around hers flustered her, Link was always wary about physical contact, especially with her. The most contact she’d ever had from him was when he helped her up onto her horse or when he had first started teaching her hand-to-hand combat. Zelda looked anywhere except him or his hand until he let go of her. She gazed down at the beautiful Sheikah runes etched into the blade and couldn’t believe how something so dangerous could be so beautiful. Until she looked up and saw Link pick up his own blade and twirl it and she immediately understood.

“These are Kakariko Kodachi’s,” she said, looking up at him as she turned the blade so the runes almost glowed in the early spring sunlight.

He nodded. “They are, Impa wanted to train you herself before your powers manifested so you could defend yourself no matter what happened. You spent so much time invested in the Sheikah ways and technology that to her you were already one of them. She kept this until you returned.”

Zelda couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “This is mine?”

She was greeted by a small smile in return. “It’s all yours.”

But the smile quickly left Links face and she knew the Captain in him had returned, he cleared his throat to get her attention, “having a strong grip on your weapon gives stability but too strong and your range of movement will be hindered.” He held his kodachi out in front of him, turning and practising forms in front of her, rolling his wrists. 

Link let his arm fall to his side as he looked at her. “I need to see what you already know so we have a starting point. Try and disarm me using your blade.” 

He let her move first as he held his kodachi out in front of him. Her first instinct was to slash down hard against the tip of it in hope of catapulting it from his hand but as she did so his arms bent, blade pointing upwards and as fast as lightning before she had recovered enough to follow him, Link turned his back to her and twisted around her so he was pressing his chest against her back, the cool metal of his kodachi pressed against the back of her neck. 

Zelda gasped as she felt his heat at her back and his exhalation against her neck, her stomach churning with something unknown, something she had never knowingly experienced before.

“Rule one,” he murmured in her ear, “speed is always more effective than brute strength. If you’re fast, they won’t have enough time to block you. If you use strength instead of speed then, depending on the enemy, your opponent can and will use it against you. It will take you longer to recover and leave you open to attacks.”

She didn’t trust herself to respond and simply nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat, shuddering as he removed the blade from her neck and stepped away from her.

Link spent the next hour correcting her stance and teaching her how to attempt to disarm weaker enemies or those that were smaller than her, which admittedly were only Bokoblins. But she had seen him disarm and dispatch foes bigger than he so she knew that, while she would never have his strength, that kind of competence would hopefully come with time.

As he held his blade against hers, with her wrist bent inwards, he flexed and put more pressure on her. “You feel how tightly I have you locked under my sword? This is not a comfortable position for you to be in. Were we in proper combat, your only choices would be to drop the blade or break your wrist.”

This was much harder than the Princess gave it credit for, how he remembers all of this was truly mind-blowing. 

He demonstrated at a faster pace and she released the blade, with him grabbing it with his free hand. “This leaves me with two weapons and you with none. Not only is it a way of you minimizing your risk of injury but you’ll swiftly take them out. Have a try.”

When she successfully disarmed him a few times in a row without him talking her through it, he decided to put what she had learned into practice.

“I’m going to start moving around you and I want you to disarm me without touching my flesh.” His lip curled upwards when Zelda answered him with a confused look. “The point of what I’m teaching you isn’t purely just to kill, Princess. Self-defence is relevant in all walks of life, it’ll protect you from humans with bad intentions as well as monsters.”

Okay, that made more sense. She supposed that she had forgotten that sometimes monsters were not the only dangerous things in existence. It reminded her of the day he saved her from the yiga.

As he circled her she tried to keep track of where he was without dizzying herself in the process. “Why do I feel like I’m the prey?” 

* * *

“Do you remember when you became my Appointed Knight?” she asked him after dinner that evening. 

It had been a long day, and as an apology for working her so hard and tirelessly, Link had appeased her by making a fruit cake.

“I remember the ceremony, the when and the how but not the why,” he responded quietly, almost bitterly. He looked up to find her grinning at him and he sensed he was about to get another influx of memories.

“The first day I remember seeing you, you were but a boy a year older than I was,” she mused, there was an edge of excitement in her voice as she relayed her memories to him. “Your father was one of the elite members of the Royal Guard, one of my fathers most trusted allies. Like your father before you, you showed unnatural talent from an early age. Mipha once told me you bested a group of men at the age of four and your father began training you soon after.” 

Zelda looked down at the cake in front of her and debated where she went from there, whether she told him the painful truth or glossed over it. No, it wouldn’t be fair to deny Link knowledge about his father, especially as she could remember and he could not, even if it was unpleasant.

“At the time your father died, you had just turned thirteen and had already become one of the youngest knights to ever be accepted. Upon finding out just how skilled you were, my father requested that you took his place in the Royal Guard.” Link listened to her, his eyes glazing over as though he was remembering this for the first time. She almost wanted to take his hand, but she wasn’t sure that he would appreciate it. “The older knights took you under their wing.” 

“I was always away trying to unlock my powers so I heard of you more than I saw you, but with you being one of many, I never really took too much notice of the gossip.” _Or, I tried not to._

“One day, upon arriving back from my most recent trip, my father immediately summoned me to his study. I had this uncanny feeling that I’d either done something wrong or something was about to change. He told me that you’d saved his life the day before. The Sheikah researchers uncovering the technology had brought a guardian to the Castle to perform a test under the king’s observation but something went wrong. They lost control of the guardian and it began firing beams rapidly, one of which went in my father’s direction.”

The Princess huffed a laugh as she recalled the memory. “You came barrelling out of nowhere brandishing a pot lid of all things and deflected it right back into its eye, blowing it up! Who better to become my appointed knight, to shadow me from sunrise to sunset?” The Princess shook her head and smiled regretfully. “To this day I’m still not sure what I hated you for most, for being more talented than me or for blowing up a priceless piece of Sheikah technology.”

“Until the Yiga attacked you,” he responded quietly, putting his plate down beside him.

“I don’t think so. I mean yes, it took until then for me to really.. Understand that. But I remember a particular time before then that I knew deep down that I didn’t hate you, however fleeting that moment was. We had reached the Rito Village to make some repairs to Vah Medoh. It was the day before we travelled down to Gerudo and I was feeling particularly tired of being the Princess of Hyrule, depressed that I couldn’t unlock my powers. So I snuck out without you knowing.” She smiled bitterly, almost regretfully then. “Or at least, I thought you didn’t know that I was going. Sometimes you knew what I would do before even I knew. But of course, you knew, you always did. I always told you not to follow me, some days I just needed a moment alone.”

She was picking at the cake again now, feeling quite subdued. “I wanted some normality back in my life, some stability. I went to the Ancient Columns to carry out some of Purah and I’s research on how the sheikah shrines worked, and why it was only accessible to the chosen hero. You.” 

Link knew this, he’d seen the memory. But he allowed her to carry on. While he’d seen and recovered that aspect of his memory... He didn’t know about it from her perspective, how she felt about it.

“I— my depression was turning to agitation, I could feel that eerie chill settle in my stomach and I wanted to scream, shout, I felt nothing went my way. I could hear the galloping of your steed before I saw it. When you approached me, I lost my temper. I said some things I wish I hadn’t, it wasn’t until after we became friends that I felt the guilt for the things I said to you, for my assumptions of you.”

Link was silent as he listened to her recounting their memory back to him, letting her get out what she needed to without interrupting. 

“I thought you hated me from the beginning, you would never talk to me or meet my gaze. You just showed up one day, that mighty sword upon your back. No one knew how you came to find it or how you managed to claim it. But it was there for everyone to see. I felt that everything just came so easily to you, you were this perfect example of a knight and I was heir to a throne of nothing.”

Zelda saw something clickIn his mind as she broached a topic that they had both assumed to be taboo by the other's standards. She supposed it must be strange for her to have memories of him that he couldn't remember. 

“I could never hate you, Princess,” Link responded after a while. 

They were awkwardly quiet for a few moments, Zelda not knowing what else to say in response and Link deep in thought. So instead she changed the subject. “When’s weapons lesson two, hero?”

* * *

**Ninth Day of the Fourth Month, Three Months After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

Weapons lesson two was not for a few days, she decided when she woke up the next morning feeling like she had been kicked back into the last century by the Lord of The Mountain. Lactic acid really was a bitch. But after leaving her to lay in a hot bath for an hour, Link had her up and back on the grass bank to begin again.

He did take pity on her aching muscles though, and instead of making her go through the same drills and exercises as the day before, he had her working on evasion tactics.

The knight stood in front of her with a long Moblin spear and a devilish grin on his face that made her question how rational his teaching methods were. 

Zelda narrowed her eyes at him dangerously, and if she was in an agile enough state to swing a sword, she doubted that Link would be grinning at her. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”

He merely shrugged at her, that suspicious grin still firmly in place. “Making you do the same thing days in a row will not help you retain any of what I’m teaching you. If you’re serious about wanting to do this we’ll stick to the same schedule as hand-to-hand, the only difference is your weapons training will change based on what you’re facing. Bokoblins and humans will require different strategies to Moblins. Moblins are stupid, but they’re bigger and stronger than us. With a weapon like yours, you’ll need to get up close, and to get close you need to be able to dodge a club, a spear or a swipe of clawed hands.”

Link dropped the spear and instead picked up a long, thin tree branch that, thankfully, didn’t look as likely to knock her head clean off her shoulders. The princess released a sigh, of course, he wouldn’t swing a club at her. This was _Link._ The worst he would do was make her train through her discomfort.

“For this, you can use the things you learnt with your kodachi, just reverse them. Moblins are strong, Princess, but their size and strength makes them slow and puts them at a big disadvantage to smaller beings. They’re also very easily distracted. I’ve thrown apples before and they’ve turned their back to me, leaving a wide-open space unprotected.” Link raised the branch above his head and twirled it to show her his range. "I want you to get close enough to touch me without coming into contact with this branch. If I get you, we’ll start again. Ready?”

She nodded, knowing that it would never just be as simple as touching him. He has something up his sleeve, the sly grin on his face told her so. 

“Move fast, stay low.”

What Link failed to tell her, was that she could touch him anywhere, not just his front. It took her at least an hour before she could get within two feet of him without feeling the gentle _thwack_ of the branch on her shoulders, the top of her head or her sides. It wasn’t until she had started to dodge him from side to side that she realised he intentionally didn’t tell her that. _Of course, because Moblins are stupid!_

His speech from yesterday and the beginning of today’s session immediately sprung to mind. _“Moblins are stupid, Princess, but they’re bigger and stronger than us.”_ And if they’re strong, then that means…

Zelda grinned at him, and she watched as his expression turned from amusement to confusion. _He’s trying to work out what I’m up to._ She started to replicate the way he circled around her yesterday, ducking, bowing and dodging his attacks. His confusion began to intensify as she continued to dodge him, not expecting her to have memorised the order of his attacks when she was also putting her full concentration on making sure she moved.

Thank Hylia he’d built up her cardio, if he had begun with this she would have been _useless_. She built up her speed and dodged a swat to her head thrice more before he tried to swing for her sides, his strongest swipe. As he swung, she feinted to the right and pivoted, her elbow jutting into the softness of where his kidney would be and he cursed, dropping the tree branch and tried to steady himself.

* * *

**Twelfth Day of the Fifth Month, Six Months After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

When they began again, Zelda was on him once more, moving faster with every strike she made, their blades binding and clashing against each other in what must have looked to others like a dance. She was moving him backwards, and it looked like she was beginning to get the edge.

Link watched her movements closely, noticing a slight pattern and when she went in for her next hit, he surprised her and grabbed her wrist, flinging her behind him and putting him at an advantage again. He whipped around to face her just as she struck, blocking himself with his kodachi. The Princess could see the excitement burning brightly in his eyes.

“I’ve created a monster,” he drawled, something akin to pride in his voice. She was a fast learner, within the space of six months she had gone from being unable to defend herself without the use of the Sheikah Slate to someone that, if given the correct _persuasion,_ could kick your ass on any day of the week more than just verbally. She would always need an armed guard with her when the day came to take back her throne but having skills like this could be the difference between life and death if push came to shove.

" _You’ve_ created a monster?” she repeated with a chortle, raising her eyebrow and smirked as she swept towards him with a flourish and swiped at his face, making him duck.“I’ve got Hylia on my side, _Sir Knight_.”

As they clashed once more, her breath stuttered when he offered her the winning smile that always made her heart skip a beat. “Oh, I do hope she’s good with a sword, _Your Highness._ ”

Zelda tried something she had only seen in watching Link training; she broke the stalemate they were in by loosening her wrist and dropped her kodachi. The force that Link had been putting on his blade sent his kodachi downwards. Zelda used his distraction to her advantage and caught her kodachi with her other hand, swinging it upwards and held it to his throat before she gave herself a moment to breathe properly. “Has anyone ever told you you’ve got an ego the size of a lynel?”

She felt something nudge her pelvis, and looked down to find Links blade pressed to the skin beneath her camisole.“It’s gotten me this far, hasn’t it?” he asked hoarsely.

It was unfair. Arrogance was not supposed to be attractive to women, especially women of her class. Panting, they held that position for what felt like hours with their eyes locked onto each other as though daring one another to move. He looked thoroughly debauched, there was something animalistic in the way his eyes had blown wide and darkened and she could tell that he was no longer in teaching mode. Zelda bit her lip, transfixed on him as she tried to figure out just what that look meant and tried not to pay any attention to the fluttering in her stomach.

_The things I want to do to you._

Link, eventually coming back to himself, raised his eyebrow at her in a silent question and they simultaneously dropped their weapons to the grass beside them and stepped back and fell into a defensive stance, circling each other. “First one to hit the floor cooks?”

Zelda nodded. With her hands raised in front of her, she was paying close attention to his every breath and every twitch of his muscles. She knew that she was going to be paying for this tomorrow but she found herself unable to care as a droplet of sweat rolled down the side of his neck and onto his chest. 

She threw the first punch, with the knight blocking it with his forearm and grabbing her wrist, twisting her pulling her arm behind her back. Zelda responded by thrusting her elbow back into his abdomen, jarring him enough that he instantly let go of her and she spun back to face him. 

They traded punches, blocking with their forearms and attempting to get the better of the other, but with the length of their training session and the heat getting to them, their strikes were half-hearted and slow. Zelda grabbed the forearm that Link had bent up to protect his face and neck, and he retaliated by using her momentum against her and spun her and when she let go she lost her footing and hit the spongy ground with a groan. 

As he turned away from her to walk away, he failed to notice that her foot had hooked around his ankle, and the next thing he knew he had twisted and fallen on top of her, his hands pressed on each side of her head and her hands on his damp chest to keep most of his weight off of her and cushion his fall.

Her eyes widened in shock at their position, she had anticipated him falling forward, not backwards.

“I think turning your back on your enemy counts as a distraction, _hero.”_ Zelda breathed as she tried not to think of his firm bare chest beneath her hands or the way his hips pressed down against hers leaving nothing to the imagination. 

She bit her soft pink lip, and she could have sworn that his pupils dilated even more than they already had. The hand that rested on the right side of her head moved until it was pressed to her hip, his thumb lightly brushing the slither of skin that wasn’t hidden by her camisole riding up. She could scent him— the mint on his breath, the mixture of his deodoriser and sweat, the heady scent of _him_ swirling around her. Link leaned down towards her and her eyes closed as she felt the featherlight touch of his lips gently brushing hers.

But just as their lips met they were pulled out of their trance by a short round of clapping. Zelda turned her head and looked to find Paya, who was so red that she looked like her head was about to explode, and Impa watching from the path leading out of the village and Link rolled off her and got to his feet with his back to their spectators, sheepishly offering her a hand up. 

He cleared his throat as he tried to look anywhere but her face. “I think we’re done for today,” and gestured to their belongings resting at the sidelines, “I’m just going to—”

“Yes, of course, I should...” she responded breathlessly and turned to approach Impa and Paya.

“That— That wasn’t what it looked like. He— Link fell.”

“Oh, I _bet_ he did.” 

“Impa!” She chastised and made her old friend let out a bark of laughter at the princess' expense. She hadn’t changed a bit in their time apart. Thankfully, it appeared Zelda wasn’t the only one utterly mortified and traumatised, with Paya a few shades darker and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Whether it was because of her obvious crush on her knight, what they witnessed or her grandmother's humour.

Impa snickered as though the entire thing was incredibly funny. “Ahhh denial, the first step in not wanting to admit things. Girly, I’m 120 years old, give an old woman some credit. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, it’s almost like he wants to devour you—”

Zelda hissed as she turned back to see if Link was following behind them. When she didn’t say anything else, Impa rolled her eyes but threw her a lifeline and changed the subject. “You fought like a true Sheikah warrior, I’m incredibly proud of you.”

It was amazing how she could go between wanting to kill someone to wanting to hug them in the space of seconds.

“Yes, well, I’m not sure a ‘true’ Sheikah warrior is supposed to feel like they’ve been kicked into the last century by a lynel after a sparring session, Impa.” Zelda grumbled, “I’m going to be lucky if I can move tomorrow."

“Considering I still have hoof prints tattooed on my ass from the bastards hiding in _your_ gatehouses,” I resent that _Your Highness,”_ Link grumbled good-naturedly, having caught up to them.

Zelda rolled her eyes and made a gesture that would have been considered incredibly uncouth for a member of the royal family, and Impa patted her back sympathetically. “A hot bath with ground-up mighty thistle and rock salt does wonders for sore muscles.”

That _did_ sound nice. Their session that day was the longest one to date, and she had a feeling she was going to be feeling this for days.

They carried on back down to the village slowly, making the most of the shade that the tall cliffs bracketing them brought. Zelda was enthusiastically talking to Impa about the research she and Purah had been working on since she and Link had returned to Hateno Village, and Link and his stomach were lamenting his poor choice of not bringing more food with them allowing for the long hours of training they had been doing.

When they approached the entrance to the village, Link strode ahead of them and went into High Spirits Produce and came back a minute later with groceries for dinner and a small paper bag filled with rock salt for Zelda, handing it to her with a guilty look on his face, discreetly running a thumb over her knuckle.

Zelda had no time to focus on the ever-expanding knot in the pit of her stomach, she desperately needed to clean the day's sweat and grime off of herself and soak away the kink she had in her neck amongst other _things_.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

**Fourteenth Day of the Eighth Month, Six Months After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

When they arrived back in Hateno a few days after leaving Kakariko, Link announced over dinner that Zelda was ready to practice her skills in a real setting. After a little insistence from her stating that she would never truly learn unless she put what he taught her into practice, of course. Unfortunately, she and Purah were no further into their analysis of the shrines around Hyrule but Zelda hoped that one day she could use the same technology to create a simulation chamber. It would mean that training could commence without the risk of serious harm or if Lynels were involved, certain death. So the real thing would have to do.

Truthfully the Princess was still surprised that Link was willing to let her help clear out a Bokoblin camp, even if it _was_ because it was full of only the weakest monsters Hyrule still had to offer. But in his own words, they were starting from the ground up and Bokoblins and the odd Moblin were the easiest for a beginner.

“I’ll be right there beside you, I won’t let you get hurt,” he told her reassuringly as he stood behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. To be honest, it felt like he was trying to reassure himself more than her. “Remember don’t get distracted, move fast and stay low and most importantly, speed over strength. These guys might be stupid and easily taken down but a swing of a club can give you one hell of a smack.”

He grimaced as he remembered the blinding concussion he had been given the first time he attempted to clear Hateno Beach of the beasts for the villagers fairly early in his journey. The Bokoblins were no trouble as he was taller than them. However in his experience even as he grew taller, Moblins were still an issue and could easily wallop someone incredibly hard oh the back of their head if they became lax and weren’t paying attention to their surroundings.

“You sound like you’re talking from experience, _hero.”_ Zelda ribbed him cheekily. She was positively gleeful. As well as her training had come along, she knew Link was terrified of any harm coming to her or being separated from her again. She could understand that she’d watched him die once, and she refused to watch it a second time. They were all each other had left, bar the Sheikah so it meant a lot to know that he was willing to put that fear aside if it meant helping her find her place in this new version of Hyrule.

Link rolled his eyes at her, a small smile tugging at his lip. He turned back to where he was organising monster parts beside the cooking pot and lit the fire. He had no intention of letting Zelda get hurt, but that didn’t mean he was going to head down to the beach unprepared. 

* * *

**Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month, Six Months After Calamity Ganon’s Defeat**

* * *

That afternoon, Zelda pulled on her Hylian tunic, which had been freshly dyed blue and purple to resemble a Silent Princess and buckled the belt holstering her Kodachi and the Sheikah Slate to her hip and practised her forms while Link made Energizing Salt-Grilled Fish for lunch. Because that day was going to be incredibly taxing on her, he cancelled their morning training session and instead made sure she slept in. 

While the Princess ate, he went through his bag and filled it with the things they could use in almost any eventuality; two hearty elixirs, an energizing elixir and first aid materials along with several extra weapons.

When Zelda put her plate down on the grass beside her and stretched her legs out further as she scrolled through the Sheikah Slate, Link bent down and knelt beside her. He put one of his fingerless leather gloves, dyed purple, on the ground in front of him and she only looked up at him, meeting his gaze, when he gently took one of her hands and carefully slid the gloves on and did the other

It was embarrassing what having Link holding her hands did to her, “These’ll stop your hands cramping and stop your weapon slipping out of your hand if your palms get sweaty.”

Zelda nodded dumbly as he pulled the fabric over her fingers, brushing them with his own and softly squeezed when he pulled the leather into place around her wrist. He repeated the motions with her other hand and when he was done, he lifted each of her hands and kissed them.

The action took her breath away. Her heart was in her throat as they stared at each other. After Impa and Paya stumbled upon them after the training _incident_ , they had almost been skirting around each other as though using their best efforts, any excuse to keep distance between them and there were times that Zelda had to ask herself if she imagined the whole thing.

But she didn’t imagine this, she couldn’t have imagined this. Not just the fact that he had gone out of his way to have a pair of his gloves dyed for her, but even as he stood up and turned away from her, she could feel his grip and his kiss long after he let go.

As Zelda stood up and slid the Slate into the holster at her hip, she remained deep in thought as they locked up and left the house, wondering, not for the first time, what exactly would have happened had the Sheikah not interrupted them.

They meandered the path from the house and through the village, briefly stopping so Link could snag some apples off of some of the trees, and turned off to the right before Purah’s Laboratory and continued down until they could see a thin plume of smoke rising from a campfire by the ocean. 

Link held a hand out to stop her and pulled the Sheikah Slate from her holster. He tapped at it, switching on its scope and handed it over to her. The Princess magnified the function several times until she could see four different coloured Bokoblin in various places, a Moblin and a barrel of what looked to be an explosive substance. 

“What we need to do is lure this guy” he points to the silver Bokoblin, “over to here” then to the barrel, “and ignite the barrel using a flaming arrow. It’ll hopefully dispatch it _and_ distract the others until we can get close enough to mount a surprise attack.”

It was a good tactic, but Zelda was still dubious. If it was anything like the silver beasts they’d come across since leaving Hyrule Castle, it would take more than a fire arrow and some explosives to rid them of the problem. “And if it doesn’t _dispatch_ it?”

He looked to think about it and shrugged at her. “Then at the very least, it will separate the group and allow you to pick off the targets one by one while I handle it.”

Okay, maybe he has thought this out well. The Princess nodded and put the Slate away and they continued further down until they reached a causeway of water and sand. He took her hand in his and drew her attention. “Are you ready?” he asked her quietly, searching for something in her gaze. 

Zelda breathed and nodded, squeezing his hand and smiled tightly, “ready.”

“If you change your mind then shout for me, I’ll be watching. I’m going to try and take as much of a backseat as I can allow myself to, Princess, but no promises.”

Link snuck closer to the camp and pulled out one of the apples he grabbed from one of Hateno’s trees and threw it closer to the barrel, luring the silver Bokoblin over when it heard the dull _thud._ Taking advantage of its distraction, he pulled out his bow and an arrow from his quiver and lit it. He aimed it dead centre of the barrel before firing and hitting its target. The sound of the arrow hitting the thick wood made the pink and green Bokoblins and the Moblin turn to face the water but the only one that approached it was the silver.

The barrel enkindled, giving Link and Zelda a few precious seconds to sprint closer to the camp, arranging themselves on opposite sides, with Link closer to the water and Zelda closer to the rocks. When the barrel finally blew, it sent the silver Bokoblin flying into the sea, it’s shrieks the only sign that it was still alive, and Zelda set off, streaking ahead to the closest of the two pink Bokoblins. 

When it noticed her approach it hissed and spat, swiping at her with its claws as it scrambled for a horn to alert the other monsters to her presence. She unsheathed her Kodachi and when it jumped at her to sink its fangs into her arm, she slashed her sword across its chest. Its head tilted back and it screamed and she drove it through the soft middle of its mandible and into its maw, silencing it. 

She looked around her to see if Link was watching, feeling surprisingly proud of herself given how much of a pacifist she’s always been, but noticed that the monster's screams of despair had attracted the attention of the others and were now making their way towards her.

_Shit._

Link stood beneath the wooden structure that the monsters had erected on the beach, wiping the master sword off as the silver Bokoblin lay prone beneath him. He twisted his head round to look for her as one of the Bokoblins on top of the structure blew into its horn, and he sped towards her, engaging one of the green monsters nearby to take the extra pressure off of her.

The Moblin, true to Link’s word, cycled through the same three types of swings, tearing into the crates and barrels that were dotted around the camp as she parried and blocked the blows. The monster didn’t care what it hit, as long as it hit _something_ , and as she looked around to see how many of the creatures were left, that carelessness gave her an idea. 

After ducking several of its swings one after the other, she quickly backed away from the Moblin, and, making sure it was still following her, instead approached a pink Bokoblin that was straying in between the two battles that were going on. Perplexingly, but fortunately for her, It was too busy jumping from side to side and waving its club at neither her nor Link to notice her coming towards it.

 _How Fascinating._ She watched the Bokoblin curiously until the Moblin got close enough to her that she could feel the draft that a swing of its club created and realised she was getting distracted. She whistled, attracting the attention of the Bokoblin and as it ran towards her, she slid her foot in front of it and tripped it, making it drop its club. Before it had a chance to claw at her with its talons or pick up its club, she grabbed the leather-like skin of its arm, and when the Moblin went to strike her again she flung the Bokoblin behind her directly into the spot she was previously standing in. As she turned around Zelda narrowly dodged the hit, but unluckily for the Bokoblin it was bludgeoned so hard it was thrown backwards into the fire pit and went limp.

There wasn’t any time for her to look around for Link again as the Moblin approached her once more with a furious roar. Zelda feinted to the side as it swung its club at her and when it swiped at her ribs she ducked into the gap beneath its arm and thrust her kodachi into its side. It howled in pain and flew into a rage. The creature was no longer attacking in the ways Link had taught her, no pattern to its movements. It repeatedly slammed its club against the ground and when its club shattered under the weight of the slams, it began tearing boulders from the ground and throwing them. 

As one of the boulders crushed the remaining green Bokoblin, the only thing Zelda could be sure of at that moment was that the monster was no longer focused on her, its tantrum blinding itself to the goings-on around it. But it didn’t matter if it knew she was there or not, its frantic movements made it impossible to get anywhere near it and if she didn’t stop it, someone was going to get hurt.

She took advantage of the distance it had put between them to think, she had to come up with something before she got hurt, before Link-- _LINK!_

Zelda felt panic well up in her chest, and as she looked around for him, she saw a torrent of wind swirl around him, raising him into the air. Then, as she watched him draw his bow, moving at a speed that made it almost seem like time had stood still, an idea hit her.

_Stasis._

The Moblin was moving closer to Link and as his focus remained elsewhere, he was in an incredibly vulnerable position. If he got hurt, it would be all her fault. What, because she wanted to play the hero? 

There was a bit too much distance between Zelda and the rampaging Moblin, if she triggered the rune now, it would break out of the hold just as she got to it and it would kill her, so she scuttled towards it with her blade in her hand until she got within four feet of it. Her footsteps didn’t go unnoticed, and the beast turned to her and snarled, skulking closer.

Zelda took a deep breath to steady herself and tried not to panic. Pulling the Slate from the holster, she scrolled through it until she got to the Stasis Rune and with her Kodachi at the ready, she aimed the Slate at the Moblin and tapped against the screen.

It picked up a boulder so big that, considering the monster’s size, should not have been possible and just as it stood up to its full height and went to throw it down on her head, a spiral of eye-watering golden chains emerged between them. They swirled around the beast and, immobilised with chains, its shrieks and snarls temporarily silenced and the Princess lunged towards it, slicing through the tendons at the back of its ankles and then thrust her kodachi in between its ribs and ripped it downwards through its thick flesh.

Zelda heaved in a deep breath with the seconds she had to spare, backing away from the Moblin until her feet touched the grass outskirts. The beast started flashing dimly and she stood defensively, her blade held outwards on the off chance that the monster was still able to throw things at her when it was released from its bindings.

The chains disintegrated and the monster dropped the Boulder it was holding and fell to its knees, one hand covering the gash in its torso and the other flat against the floor as thick, purple blood streamed down onto the sand beneath it. As she looked around she noticed that there were no more creatures to fight, their carcasses littered around the bay. 

The Moblin breathed it’s last and when it sagged completely to the ground, Link came into view from behind it, his deep blue eyes were wide with awe and his mouth hanging open. He was gazing at her like she was the only woman left on this planet.

She could hear Impa in her head, tone smug as she teased her old friend. _Like he wants to devour you._ He looked at her like he hadn’t eaten for a month like he was ravenous. 

Link sheathed his sword and strode towards her with purpose, she could see how heavily he was breathing as he pushed his windswept hair back and wiped the sweat from his brow. The look in his eyes made her shudder and his piercing gaze made her feel like he could see into her very soul. 

Zelda felt something stirring in her low in her gut and went onto autopilot, striding forward to meet him and this time when they leaned in there was no one around to interrupt them for miles. She fisted the material of his blue Champion tunic and pulled him closer, her lips gently pressing to his own. It was tentative and exploratory, to begin with, searching for something in his kiss almost as if she was making the most of it before Link inevitably pulled away. To her surprise, as she slowly broke the kiss and pulled back to breathe, he chased her lips and pressed another kiss to them, no longer tentative but warmer and softer this time running his tongue along the seam of hers begging for entry. 

Zelda sighed and opened her mouth to him eagerly, the heat of the kiss permeating her body and settling in her stomach like molten lava, a tingling feeling she knew only too well settling between her thighs. 

Links touch was like fire as his hands snuck under her top and his thumbs pressed into the dip of her hips. He kissed her with all the heat of Death Mountain, making them hotter than average air temperature around them feel like a trip through the Hebra Mountains. She was burning up and she wanted _more._

She relieved her hands of the tight gloves so she could feel his skin against hers and trailed them up the sides of his neck, stopping below his ears, fingers sneaking up the back of them with her thumbs in front and gently stroking the shell. He sighed as she pried her lips away from his and instead trailed hot, wet kisses along his jaw and continued down the column of his throat. He groaned softly as Zelda sucked and nibbled at his skin and, encouraged by the sounds he was making, she pushed her hips flush with his to feel the throbbing reaction her ministrations were eliciting in him against her core.

As Link picked her up and she wrapped her thighs around his hips and her arms around his neck, she barely noticed that they were moving until she felt the solid surface of the cliff face behind her and the cool breeze of its shade licked at the sweat-soaked skin peeking out from underneath her tunic. His body leaned gracefully in all the wrong angles that did all the right things for her, making her grind down against his groin so hard she saw stars.

“ _Fuck,”_ Link moaned as she arched her back, trying to follow the sensation and in the process brushed against his hardness again. _“_ Zelda—” he rumbled, trying to suck in as much air as he could to clear his head, “this is going to get very out of control and if we don’t stop now— I don’t think I could—” he stuttered as he tried to hold onto the last semblance of restraint.

She supposed he had a point, they were filthy and stank of Bokoblin and Moblin blood which, when mixed with human sweat, was almost nauseating and it reminded her of her abandoned home. It didn’t matter how turned on they both were, it would be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Zelda kissed him and tugged on his lip gently but carefully let go of his waist, only letting go of his neck when her shaky legs touched down on the grass. “This isn’t over, hero,” she murmured. She knew some of his sensitive spots now, knew the sounds and movements he made almost as well as she knew herself and she’s not sure she can go much longer without teasing more out of him.

They wasted the last of the sunlight by relieving the corpses of their entrails, horns and fangs before dragging them into a pile on their rickety wooden towers and setting light to them using fire arrows, ridding the beach not only of the monsters but the ugly structures as well. Hopefully, now it would once again become a place that the villagers of Hateno could enjoy safely.

They watched the flames until the structure fell apart and disappeared beneath the waves and the purple haze of the bodies dissipated in the wind, then walked back up the path to the village hand in hand in a comfortable silence as the sun began to disappear behind the horizon and by the time they got back to the house, it was twilight. 

They let themselves in and began removing their belts, baldrics and holsters and Link convinced Zelda to go up to the loft to pick up some clean clothes and take a bath. She was the one that commandeered most of their fight except for the silver and green Bokoblins that he took on, and was the one most saturated in the oily monster blood. She disappeared behind the folding partition against the wooden bannister but appeared a few moments later carrying one of Link's larger Hylian tunics and a pair of soft sleep shorts. 

When she stepped out, skin sensitive and pink from the heat of her bath, she was greeted by a freshly washed Link who had lit the lanterns and was ladling stew into two bowls. He offered her a bowl without looking up and tied his drying hair back before inhaling his own.

When they finished eating and they washed and dried everything up, Zelda was beginning to tire, her body getting heavier and with her stiff and sore joints, her movements became clumsier.

Despite the sun having set hours ago now, the air temperature was still hotter and more uncomfortable than she’d like. She got into bed a little while before Link and took off the sleep shorts, leaving her in his oversized tunic and her underwear. Zelda settled on her side of the bed, revelling in the coolness of the sheets beneath her, incredibly grateful that Link ditched the single bed and instead put a double one together within a week of arriving at the house. Even half a year on, they both still had nightmares about the darkest times in their long lives and quickly learnt that the only way to quell those traumatic memories was to sleep beside each other. 

However, despite sleeping beside each other every night, something felt different that night. There was a charge, almost like a static in the air. When Link came upstairs to join her he sat down at the foot of the bed and pulled off his boots, trousers and his tunic before extinguishing the lanterns and getting into his side of the bed, going incredibly still. 

Even though this is how they always slept, to Zelda It felt like there was a ravine in between them. She laid with her eyes closed with her back to him and desperately tried to go to sleep. How is it that she was almost falling asleep while sitting outside, but now that she got into bed she was wide awake?

It had been a long day, the fight at Hateno Bay had taken more out of her than she expected despite the fact it was over within an hour. 

But it wasn’t the fight that had taken up most of her energy. Physically, yes. But not mentally or emotionally. The most torturous part of the day was that she could still feel Links soft lips against her own, his fingers digging into her thighs and his presence between them. He had awoken something inside her, and she couldn’t decide if it frightened her or excited her.

The longer she ruminated, the more unsettled and restless she became. She tried to picture the internal workings of the Sheikah Slate, the changes she had planned to try in hopes of improving and building on the technology currently in place. 

If she knew the light of the screen wouldn’t keep Link awake, she would bring the Slate into bed with her and start analysing the data he had collected during his travels. This frustrated her even more. It didn’t matter what she thought of, it always circled back to _him._ And that was the thing she was trying to avoid thinking about.

Zelda sighed and rose, picking up the Slate from beside the bed and getting up. She would sit downstairs at the table with the Slate and her notebook and work until her body got itself together, at least until the heat coiling in her belly eased.

She had just got to the top of the stairs when Link spoke to her for the first time since they left Hateno Beach. “Zelda, Where’re you going?” His voice was scratchy with disuse but told her he was still very much awake. 

She shifted her from foot to foot and smiled reassuringly at him, “I can’t sleep, I’m going to get a glass of water and—”

“There’s a full glass beside the bed,” he said in confusion, “you bring one up with you every night.”

“Yes, but—” The Princess sighed, she always was a terrible liar. And he was always more intuitive than she gave him credit for.

As if he knew this he stifled a laugh, but she could still hear the amusement in his soft-spoken tone and then he held out his arm. “Come here.”

She stood there for a moment not quite sure what to do. She wanted to get back into bed, maybe inch a little closer to his warmth, but she desperately needed to clear the red haze that was fogging up her mind. 

She couldn’t believe how silly she felt, feeling this worked up over sharing a bed with him when they had been doing so for months. They had been hugging for months, he grabbed her hand sometimes when he wanted to show her something. This is nothing new. But today had offered her something she’d never had before and it was like a drug, she needed _more._ But if he felt the same, he wasn’t showing it. She wasn’t sure if she could go back to them only touching platonically now she had a taste of what she would be missing.

The small cottage was filled with minute sounds as she stood there contemplating; the odd dripping of one of the bathroom taps, the clock ticking, the creaking of the floorboards beneath her feet and her ragged breaths. But the only noise that mattered to her was the rustling of their sheets as he sat up a little further. “I won’t make you if you need a minute, but I’m sensing some... Unrest,” he murmured.

_Oh, if only you knew._

How was she supposed to carry on downstairs when all she could see in the moonlight streaming in through their bedroom window were his soft, ocean-strong eyes and the hand he had outstretched towards her. She swallowed the lump that was sitting in her throat and went to walk back to her side of the bed.

“Zelda?” 

“Hmm?”

“I meant this side.“ To emphasize his point, he pulled back the duvet and held out both of his arms to offer her a place between them 

_Oh._

A blush spread across her cheeks and she hoped that it wasn’t obvious in the dull light, but as she put a knee up onto the bed and crawled towards him her embarrassment was forgotten.

They laid there comfortably after getting settled, her head on his bare chest and a hand resting over a raised scar on his torso. Link was covered in scars, a lasting reminder of every battle he’d fought to get where he is today. But this scar was different. This was the one that taunted her with everything that she almost lost on that bleak day on Blatchery Plain. 

Zelda absentmindedly stroked the puckered skin with her thumb as she tried to retain the memory of his warm chest rising and falling beneath her. She turned her head just slightly to place a kiss in between his pectorals, feeling as he inhaled sharply and his pulse spiked beneath her lips.

The corded arm that Link wrapped around her fell to where her tunic had risen just above her waist, his nimble fingers ghosting back and forth and sending shivers up her spine. _Is this what he felt when I brushed his skin?_

Zelda didn’t know why she was feeling so insecure about her desires. She _knew_ he wanted her as badly as she wanted him, she had felt the proof of it pressing against her when she had climbed him like a durian tree that afternoon.

She looked up from her place on his chest and watched as he opened his eyes and looked back at her longingly. Zelda leaned closer to his face while his fingers ran over the bare skin of her sides. Link met her halfway and pressed his lips against hers. This time there was no reason to stop, nothing or nobody to get in the way. They were completely alone to enjoy the other’s company.

She pulled away only slightly, her breath still ghosting over Links lips before diving back in and teasing her tongue across them asking for entry, repeating her actions from that afternoon. 

In his distraction, the Princess sat up and threw one of her legs over his thigh so she was straddling him. Zelda huffed out a warm breath and, taking advantage of the sudden adrenaline rush, started to press hot, wet open-mouthed kisses to her knight’s neck.

Zelda was new to this and had never done it before, she’d never _wanted_ to do it before. But hearing Link groan as she pressed lingering, featherlight kisses along his neck, feeling the heat of him pressed against her core made her feel more powerful than she’d ever felt in her life. She homed in on the side of his throat just below his pulse point and as she did that afternoon, sucked at it hard enough to leave a mark. 

Link took a deep breath in and shuddered, gently thrusting up into her and Zelda knew he was putty in her hands.

She knew the marks she’d lovingly given him were going to be visible to others, and may lead to some very uncomfortable questions but she found herself unable to care; she wanted him so badly it _hurt_. They could always blame it on monsters.

“Prin— Zelda— move the Slate.”

The _what?_ “Mmmm?” She murmured distractedly as she continued to work on him.

“The Slate, move the Slate.”

She pulled away from his neck, raising her eyebrow at his priorities, but did as he asked and picked it up from where she had left it on her side of the bed and placed it on the bedside table.

Zelda pulled her arm back and yelped and Link suddenly rolled them over to where the slate had just been so she was now beneath him. 

Link tilted her chin up to kiss her deeply, making her moan softly into his mouth and his hand moved to cup her cheek. He moved from her mouth to her jaw and began kissing a path down the middle of her neck, teeth grazing her supple flesh and soothing the marks with laves of his tongue. He went to pull her tunic to the side to lay more kisses against her skin, but she sat up and impatiently yanked the fabric over her head to give him better access, leaving her in nothing but her underwear. 

Her companion suddenly seemed as if he didn’t know where to look or touch first, his eyes hungrily roving over her lithe body, particularly drawn to the dark flush across her chest. Link leaned back down and left off from where he was kissing and nipping at the flesh of her neck. 

Finally getting to touch her properly, Link softly took one breast in hand, the rough and calloused tips of his fingers alternating between squeezing it and tweaking her nipple and when he placed his mouth over the other and enveloped her stiff peak, he was rewarded with a breathy moan. Zelda arched her back and bucked up against him, making him choke on his saliva and her hand slipped to the nape of his neck, carding her hand through his hair.

The Princess’ eyes fluttered closed and her head thrown back against the headboard as he switched breasts, giving it the same attention as its twin. His flesh against hers provided the most delicious friction as she once again thrust her hips up against his, this time feeling his growing arousal through his boxers.

Link carried on moving downwards until he found himself between her legs. He stopped but didn’t move away from her and when she finally opened her eyes, she thought she was going to combust on the spot. Her knight was staring up at her, kneeling between her legs replicant of prayer, his smouldering eyes glazed and dark with need. Oh, how she wanted him.

“Please,” she begged him softly, not knowing what exactly it was that she was begging for. All she knew was that only he could relieve her of the tension that had been building inside her for months before it boiled over. 

“Tell me what you need,” he murmured, watching her with dark, hungry eyes and danger in his voice.

“You,” Zelda responded and arched her back in hopes of getting the friction she desperately needed to quell the fire in her veins. _Your hands, your mouth, your anything._ “Just you.” She felt his warm breath against her abdomen and his hands moved to grip the waistband of her underwear, looking up at her, a question in his gaze. She nodded and he wasted no time in pulling them off, throwing them down onto the pile of clothing that was building up on their bedroom floor. 

With the Princess now naked beneath him, Links hands moved to her hips where he ran them down the outside of her smooth legs before using one hand to hold himself over her and moving the other to the apex of her thighs. She had to fight the urge to close her legs, but her knight held her gaze as he leaned down to her wetness, the feeling of his warm breath against her lips made her shudder involuntarily, her legs spreading further apart as if inviting him closer. 

He laid on his stomach with his head between her thighs and finally, he made contact with her. She gasped and jolted, electricity shooting through her body as he spread her lips with his fingers and licked a straight line from her opening to her clit. Zelda clenched her fists in the sheets of their bed. Her head fell back with a moan as he inserted a finger into her and continued to lap at her juices, the most _obscene_ sounds leaving his mouth as he worked her. 

Zelda was no stranger to pleasure. While she had never lain with another man, she knew her body and how to provide her own satisfaction, but this was truly something else. Not even the most delectable sexual dreams came close to the way Link coaxed her body closer to an earth-shattering release. He added another finger as he stretched, thrusted and licked her with abandon, his tongue circling her clit and reducing her to a whimpering mess. 

“Ah— Link _please_ — Just a little—” Zelda moaned brokenly as her hips began to move of their own volition in time with his thrusts, trying to grind down against his pretty mouth. Her body _burned_ with the tension that had steadily built up over half a year. 

His licks turned to sucks and she had to fight to stop herself from clenching her thighs around his head and suffocating him. Link slung his other arm over her abdomen to keep her still. The pleasure he was bestowing upon her sent warmth lancing through her body and when he added a third finger, she felt her walls clenching around his fingers and she knew she was a goner. 

He locked his lips around her clit and sucked _hard_ and she finally, blessedly, broke. Like the goddess incarnate she was, a white-hot heat she could only liken to the day Hylia’s powers were unlocked cascaded down her spine and flooded her body as she convulsed and cried out. Zelda’s head fell back against the pillow while Link continued to work her through her orgasm, lapping at the abundance of _her._ He pulled his fingers out of her as she came down from her high and looked up at her with sparkling eyes and glistening lips.

Link crawled back up her body, leaning down to kiss her softly when he got there. It was incredibly erotic, the idea of tasting herself on his moist lips. Even more so than watching him suck what little of her fluids remained on his fingers. Zelda brought a hand to his cheek while guiding the other to the arousal tenting his boxers.

Her hands cupped him through the material and he broke away from her lips and rested his head on her shoulder, moaning softly in her ear as she squeezed him. He didn’t look up until her hand slithered into his shorts to grasp him properly and she gently bucked up into him again.

“Are you sure?” He asked cautiously. Link knew better than anyone what this meant for her of all people. 

“Positive,” she responded. Admittedly, this wasn’t a very regal thing to do with someone that wasn’t her husband and even then, there was no one walking the entire planet more likely to become her husband one day than Link. But times had changed and so had they. 

Link rose from the mattress and pulled off his shorts, throwing them to the top of the clothing pile and swooped back in to capture Zelda’s lips in a fierce, breathtaking kiss.

It was hard for Zelda to concentrate now they were both as bare as the day they were born and with his length pressing against her. Every time he instinctively thrusted the head rubbed against her clit making her whine and shuffle beneath his weight.

Her arms wrapped themselves around her neck and she ran her hands through his hair, gently scratching at his scalp and shoulders and teasing a hiss out of her knight before going back to his neck.

Link took himself in hand, guiding his erection along her slit to coat himself in her nectar and paused at her entrance. “Are you quite certain?” He asked, offering her one last way out before the last of his restraint was broken, “we don’t have t—”

“Yes,” she breathed, “completely.”

When Link started to push into her, Zelda inhaled sharply and grit her teeth as she felt the pinch of the flesh inside her stretching around him. It was nowhere near as painful as some of the things she had experienced in her life, but it wasn’t pleasant. She wasn’t used to feeling so _full_. Her nails bit half-moons into the flesh of his shoulder as she clutched at his skin, trying to pull him closer and he bit back a moan when her strong reaction to his length made him pause. “Zelda?” Pulling back, the knight tilted her chin up to look at him and she met his concerned gaze.

“Keep going” she whispered and offered him a watery smile as she felt him try to pull away from her, only stopping when he felt her feet resting on the back of his calves. “Please. Just.. go slowly.” 

“Always,” he told her, holding his hand to her cheek and when she nuzzled into him he wiped a stray tear away before claiming her lips in a bruising and thankfully distracting kiss. Zelda bit down on his lower lip and moaned when she realised she could still taste herself on his tongue. 

When she started rocking herself against him and whimpering needily, Link took liberties and when she no longer flinched at his movements he continued to push in until he’d bottomed out. He closed his eyes and paused for a moment for her to adjust. Her heat had begun to affect him now, and when she experimentally clenched around him, Links head hung down to rest on her shoulder with a groan and started counting in the Language of the Minish. 

“Link?” Zelda asked worriedly and gently tugged on the hair at the back of his head to get him to look up. Now that the pains of his breach had eased, she found herself missing the feeling of s _omething_ from this, the delicious heat that flared through her. 

His sapphire eyes looked up to meet her emerald and smiled wryly, “‘’m fine. Just... Just give me a minute.” 

“Of course,” Zelda murmured with relief and let go of his hair. She brushed sweaty tendrils of hair from his forehead and thumbed against the stubble on his angular jaw and laid her back against his pillows.

A few moments later, Link was ready to move. He placed his hand flat against the mattress and rose above her, and Zelda shuddered as she realised what came next.

“Okay? He asked, one last time and placed a kiss at the corner of her mouth.

“Okay,” she confirmed. 

The knight slowly pulled out of her and with his eyes fixed on hers to test her reaction, he pushed back in with a guttural groan, eliciting a low moan from Zelda. Taking her cry to be one of pleasure, he started to move against her in earnest.

_Oh. Oh, Hylia._

Zelda let go of his neck as she threw her head back again and moaned loudly as he fell into a steady rhythm. She ran one hand up to the back of his neck and the other drifted down, her nails scraping at the skin of his back and pulling a sigh from his lips. 

Allowing her eyes to close as ripples of pleasure flooded her body, all Zelda could do beneath him was _feel._ The way the bed shook as they moved against each other, the velvety sensation of the bed sheets sliding over her oversensitive skin as she writhed and arched into her lover’s chest, the sharpness of his teeth grazing over her exposed throat and the pressure of his hips against grinding down against hers. 

The friction of his length dragging against her walls lit every nerve ending in her body on fire, burning her up from the inside out, It was then that she knew that it was never going to get better than this. Link was a fever she couldn’t or wouldn’t sweat out. 

Her neck strained and body taut as she chased the climax she desperately needed, the pleasure he wrought licked at her spine and heat coiled low in her belly. She was so close to release that the line between pleasure and pain was blurred. 

Link nipped at her clavicle and she yelped, her eyes opening and meeting his mischievous and ravenous gaze. Zelda arched an eyebrow and gently ran her nails down his chest, making him gasp and thrust into her harder.

It became as their training sessions had; a way to one-up the other. She pulled his hair, he bit into the juncture of her neck so hard she saw and felt lightning and clenched around him. Link’s thrusts got rougher as they got closer to their releases and his hand inched down to her sensitive bundle of nerves and began to rub tight circles around it. There was no extra time now for her to make the most of the delicious and blissful pleasure coursing through her veins and she found herself hurtling towards the edge. When she finally came apart, it was with his name on her tongue and her head fuzzy with endorphins. It was like coming home. 

As she lay there and clenched around him, Links hips stuttered and he thrust one, two, three more times before burying himself inside her with a guttural moan. If it wasn’t completely against his body's capabilities, she thought he may harden again.

He didn’t give himself the chance. He gently pulled himself out of Zelda with a filthy _squelch_ and leaned down to pull his boxers over his softened length and disappeared downstairs. Zelda winced as she tried to sit up and wait for him. Her body was killing me. Some parts of it were from their battle from earlier but the others came from their passionate lovemaking. She knew she was going to bruise everywhere, including her poor, chapped lips! She just hoped for her own sake that none of them were visible, particularly the lovebite he had presented her with as he made love to her.

Thinking about her many aches and pains, Zelda rubbed her thighs together and winced as she felt his seed slip out of her. She scooted over to the edge of the bed, not content with sleeping in such a state. As she tried to find where Link had thrown her underwear or tunic so she could at least wipe herself off, he appeared carrying a wet washcloth.

Zelda smiled gratefully and went to take the washcloth from him, but he knocked her hand away and gestured for her to lay back. _Well, it was his mess she supposed._

When he was done, Link threw the washcloth to the pile of clothes and he climbed back into bed beside her, pulling her into his arms. As they laid there quietly, they allowed the others respective heartbeat to lull them to sleep.

“I didn’t know you could speak Minish,” Zelda suddenly said accusingly through the darkness and ran her hands through his sweaty locks 

Link shrugged, “neither did i.”

Her mouth opened at his answer, closed and then opened again. _Of course, he didn’t._ This man. This ridiculous, funny, taciturn, sweet man. From the moment they met over one hundred years ago, he had done nothing but surprise her in all the best ways.

The only response she can give him is a laugh. She started to laugh so hard that she couldn’t stop, and tears welled up in her eyes and her sides shook. And when she tried to stop, and she snorted as a result, Link choked on his saliva and then started to laugh hysterically as well.

When their laughter died down and they fell back into a comfortable silence, Link nuzzled her face, his nose brushing against hers and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips languidly, no longer as urgent, content with taking it slowly. Zelda was much more relaxed than she was when she first got into bed, she had gotten the crippling sexual tension out of her system _and_ she had tired herself out. 

Had she known just how thrilling sexual intercourse was, she would have tried it sooner. Though she knew it wasn’t just the fact that sex felt good in general. Of course, it did, how else could Mother Nature make sure that procreation occurred? But Zelda knew that it wouldn’t feel as good as it did if it wasn’t Link between her legs. 

It hit her like lightning hitting the top of the Hateno Laboratory that Link wasn’t just her bodyguard or her best friend any longer. She didn’t just want to fuck him or, on some days, throttle him. She loved him. She loved him more than she hated Ganon. More than she needed water. She loved him like she needed his presence in her life like she needed oxygen. The plans to restore the castle and town were already afoot, and throughout the preparations, she had carved a place out for the man she loved. 

Despite how happy they both are with their current arrangement, Zelda knew the day was coming that they have to give up their peaceful living in Hateno and return to Hyrule Castle.

When she took back her throne, life in the castle would be very different from the life they live now. It would be an adjustment for both of them; Link had no recollection of life in the castle except where she left breadcrumbs for him. Zelda had been a prisoner of Calamity Ganon, She wasn’t mortal for the entirety of the last century. The thought of them sneaking around the castle to continue their sordid affair was incredibly exciting, it sent a thrill up Zelda’s spine.

Zelda knew that things would be more relaxed in this day and age, the times of abstinence until marriage was behind them and even if there was pressure for her to marry a nobleman or royal suitor, Link’s status as the Hero of Hyrule would be enough to satisfy other people, not that it would be any of their business. 

They would cross that bridge when they came to it, but for now, her priority was him, in their little cottage on the outskirts of the village, his bare chest against hers and their legs tangled beneath the covers. 

“I love you,” Zelda murmured softly into the darkness around them and presses her lips to his chest again. The only indicator that her lover was away was the twitch in his chest and the hitch in his breath.

“What?” Link asked her as he wasn’t sure whether he was hearing things.

“I love you,” she repeated and slowly looked up to him properly, hoping she hadn’t scared him off to never be seen again.

As she looked up at him, she wasn’t prepared for his lips to come crashing down upon hers, all teeth and tongue and pushing the air from her lungs. He pulled away from her lips and instead pressed his forehead against hers. “I love you too,” he said quietly before kissing her again softly and pulling her as close as she could get.

When they pulled apart with big yawns and exhausted bodies, Link and Zelda were finally lulled to sleep with the knowledge that they had both won the game.


End file.
